After a foggy Saturday in Edinburgh, Sunday had sun worshippers out in force around the capital’s parks basking in the unseasonal heat wave. The warm spell is set to see temperatures peak today before slowly dropping toward the end of the week.

The Met Office recorded the highest temperature, 22.8ºC, at Fyvie castle in Aberdeenshire, a new record temperature for Scotland in March. They have, however, forecast that this sunny spell will be short-lived with figures back down to the seasonal average by next week.

A research paper published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany warns that these weather extremes could be down to human-caused global warming. Lead author of the research paper Dim Coumou says, “The question is whether these weather extremes are coincidental or a result of climate change. Global warming can generally not be proven to cause individual extreme events – but in the sum of events the link to climate change becomes clear.”

The threat of global warming will do little to dampen spirits as the early spate of summer sun is expected to have people out in their droves in Edinburgh and around the UK today.